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Australia is moving to regulate the emotional side of artificial intelligence. The government's new Digital Duty of Care bill would ban chatbots designed to foster emotional intimacy with users. It's a striking response to an American Psychological Association finding that forty-nine percent of adults now talk to AI as if it were a close friend.
That question of how AI fits into real human lives also runs through a broader debate about data centers and their environmental footprint. In the UK, water companies report data centers consume six point six million liters of public water supplies every single day, while American consumers are increasingly blaming rising electricity bills on the same infrastructure. The numbers are real, though the full picture is more complicated than the headlines suggest.
On a lighter but genuinely practical note, Audio Technica has expanded its headphone lineup with its first wireless StreamSet model, moving beyond its traditional wired XLR and USB offerings. For creators who've long trusted the brand in studio settings, cutting the cord while keeping that Audio Technica quality is a meaningful step forward.
That's what's moving in tech today. Keep surfing. Tech Beat out.
